Second Career Student Teachers' Intentions, Motivations, and ...

International Education Research

Volume 2, Issue 3 (2014), 01-17 ISSN 2291-5273 E-ISSN 2291-5281 Published by Science and Education Centre of North America

Turning to Teaching: Second Career Student Teachers' Intentions, Motivations, and Perceptions about the Teaching Profession Ruth Zuzovsky1* & Smadar Donitsa-Schmidt1 1

Kibbutzim College of Education, Technology and the Arts, Tel-Aviv, Israel

*Correspondence: Ruth Zuzovsky, Kibbutzim College of Education, Technology and the Arts, 149 Namir Rd., Tel-Aviv, 62507, Israel. Tel: 972-54-4212980; E-mail: [email protected] DOI: 10.12735/ier.v2i3p01

URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.12735/ier.v2i3p01

Abstract In light of predicted teacher shortages, many countries including Israel have initiated Master of Teaching programs targeting second career candidates. Their unique profile aroused our interest in examining their motives for turning to teaching and their beliefs about teachers and the teaching profession. Findings show the dominance of an altruistic motive followed by intrinsic and extrinsic ones. Candidates adhere to a middle position between viewing teaching as a technical-rational activity and a reflective practice and view "good" teachers as having a mixture of adequate personality traits, positive human relations and professional performance with an emphasis on personality traits. Keywords: second career; student teachers; motivation; beliefs; teaching profession

1. Introduction and Purpose In recent years, there has been growing concern about current and predicted teacher shortages worldwide (Darling-Hammond & Sykes, 2003; Eurydice, 2002; Ingersoll, 2003; Santiago, 2002; Schleicher, 2012). Similar concerns have also been raised in Israel (Central Bureau of Statistics [CBS], 2007; Vorgan & Fiedelman, 2008; Yogev, 2006). In light of predictions concerning future shortages of qualified teachers, attempts have been made in many countries to increase the adequate supply of competent individuals who are willing to serve as teachers. Some of these attempts aim to recruit talented graduate level candidates who did not choose teaching careers as their first choice. In Israel, as part of such attempts, the Commission of Higher Education [CHE] initiated the opening of an attractive Master of Teaching program (MTeach) that offers second career candidates a two year program of integrated studies which grant them a teaching certificate in their area of expertise and a Masters degree in education (CHE, 2006). The target audience of the program was naturally supposed to be more educated, older and more mature than the regular B.Ed. students, with previous careers in varied occupations and more determined to stay in teaching. This expected different profile aroused our interest in examining the process of socialization into the profession of these students. The present study examines several aspects of this process, starting with the motivation for entering the teaching profession, the intention to pursue the new career and perceptions held by the ~1~

Ruth Zuzovsky & Smadar Donitsa-Schmidt

Submitted on May 31, 2014

career switchers regarding the essence of teaching and of a "good" teacher. Tracing changes that occurred in these aspects during the preparation period enables us to better understand the process of socialization into the profession and delineate developmental trends in it. This study is the first step in following up the integration of graduates of the MTeach program into the educational system and evaluating the worth of this new route of teacher preparation.

2. Theoretical Background The theoretical background relevant to this research touches upon two main issues: motivation for choosing teaching as a career and beliefs about teaching and about the characteristics of a "good" teacher. Often these two issues are treated in the literature separately; however, some studies try to connect them as we have in the present study (Cochran-Smith & Zeichner, 2010; Kyriacou, Hultgren, & Stephens, 1999; Saban, 2003; Thomson, Turner, & Nietfeld, 2012; Wilke & Losh, 2008; and in Israel, Katzir, Sagi, & Gilat, 2004). Not many studies focus specifically on those who change careers and turn to teaching. In a recent paper, Tigchelaar, Brouwer, and Vermunt (2010) cite 36 studies that focus on this group of candidates, and point to distinct differences between them and first career teachers in respect to motivation skills, knowledge, beliefs and autonomy. Some of these studies are relevant to the specific issues dealt within this study and we will cite them accordingly.

2.1 Motivation for Choosing Teaching as a Career When referring to the motivation for choosing teaching as a career, one of the earliest researchers in this area identifies five crucial themes in one's motivation for teaching: the need for interpersonal relations, a desire to serve others, the continuation theme of sticking to familiar school habits, material benefits of the job, and time compatibility with family demands (Lortie, 1975). These factors also appear in other publications (Goodlad, 1984; Johnson, 1990). Similar reasons appear in more recent studies, sometimes, however, bearing other names. For example, motivational factors appearing in an OECD publication are: a wish to teach, to work with children and adolescents, to be an educational role model, to balance between professional and private life, to serve public needs, to obtain job security and job benefits (The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development [OECD], 2005). Often these factors are clustered into either two or three types of motivation. In classical motivational literature, only two types appear – "intrinsic" and "extrinsic." "Intrinsic" motivation is defined as "doing an activity for its inherent satisfaction rather than for separable consequences" (Deci, 1972; Deci & Ryan, 2000, p. 256) or "what people do without external incentives" (Malone & Lepper, 1987). "Extrinsic" motivation is defined as "doing an activity for the attainment of separable outcomes" (Deci & Ryan, 2000, p. 256), or for instrumental reasons (Malone & Lepper, 1987). Some scholars tend to perceive these two types of motivation on a single continuum where one component may be more prominent (Covington & Müeller, 2001, p. 161). Another type of motivation, "Altruistic," is either considered only an extension of intrinsic motivation, or in some publications, a category on its own (Brookhart & Freeman, 1992; Kyriacou & Coulthard, 2000; Kyriacou, Kunc, Stephens, & Hultgren, 2003; Manuel & Hughes, 2006; Moran, Kilpatrick, Abbott, Dallat, & McClune, 2001; Papanastasiou & Papanastasiou, 1998; Pop & Turner, 2010; Pop & Turner, 2009; Saban, 2003; Thomson et al., 2012; Watt & Richardson, 2007). In the context of the present study, we prefer to consider altruistic motivation as a separate category. Kyriacou and Coulthard (2000) describe the three categories as follows: Altruistic motivation deals with the desire to help society to improve and to help children. Intrinsic motivation deals with aspects related to the job itself, such as intellectual challenge and enjoyment. Extrinsic motivation ~2~

www.todayscience.org/ier.php International Education Research Vol. 2, Issue 3, 2014 deals with aspects not inherent in the job activity itself, but rather as a consequence of doing it, such as having holidays and earning a salary. A more comprehensive approach to dealing with motivation that leads to choosing teaching as a career was recently offered by two Australian researchers, Watt and Richardson (2007, 2008, 2011; Watt et al., 2012). Their conceptual model is based on two motivational theories: The expectancyvalue theory (Eccles (Parsons) et al., 1983; Eccles, 2005; Wigfield & Eccles, 2000), and the social cognitive career theory – SCCT (Lent, Brown, & Hackett, 1994; Lent, Lopez, & Bieschke, 1993). The assumption behind their model is that individuals would be more likely to choose careers for which they expect to have the requisite abilities, to which they attach value and which do not demand too great a cost. On the basis of this model, they developed a scale to measure factors influencing teaching choice (FIT-choice). The scale combines three sets of variables that play a role in making a career choice. The first is a set of "self" variables referring to personal ability beliefs related to success in the job. The second set refers to "value" variables, i.e., the subjective values attached to the task. These include intrinsic-altruistic or extrinsic values. The intrinsic-altruistic motivation here is called the "social utility value" which refers to the desire to make a social contribution, shape the future of children, etc. The extrinsic motivation here is called the "personal utility value" and includes aspects of time for family, job security, overseas employment, lengthy holidays, etc. The third set of variables in this model is the "task perception," the demands and returns from the task of teaching. The model also includes a more distal component – social influences that affect the choice in teaching, among them, prior teaching and learning experiences, public opinion on teaching, etc. (Watt & Richardson, 2007; Watt et al., 2012). The FIT model also includes a category of reasons for choosing a teaching career defined as "fallback reasons" – reasons for which individuals entered teaching because they were unable to pursue other careers (Watt et al., 2012). Some studies deal not only with reasons to enter teaching, pull factors, but also with reasons that drove individuals away from their previous occupations, push factors (Anthony & Ord, 2008). The studies that specifically focus on motivation of second career candidates express both altruistic motivation such as sense of mission, love for children, or helping young people, serving society (Chambers, 2002; Dieterich & Panton, 1996; Powers, 2002) and preference for intrinsic motivation derived from their previous experiences (Chambers, 2002; Crow, Levine, & Nager, 1990; Dieterich & Panton, 1996, Freidus & Krasnow, 1991; Serow & Forrest, 1994). Few studies that deal with second career motivation do also consider extrinsic factors such as financial reward and time for family (Richardson & Watt, 2005), need for greater stability and security (Priyadharshini & Robinson-Pant (2003), but even in these studies these motives are not the most important.

2.2 Beliefs about Teaching and about the Characteristics of "Good" Teachers The process of choosing teaching as a career and becoming a teacher is affected, and has an effect, on a set of beliefs concerning the teaching profession and the characteristics of those who teach. Following Schön (1983, 1987), two images of the teaching profession have been portrayed – one as "technical-rational practice" which derives its professional authority from the ownership of a unique theoretical and scientific knowledge base. This knowledge is then applied in solving practical problems. The second image of teaching is that of "reflective practice," which derives its power from the professional tacit knowledge embedded in action that is surfaced through reflection "on" and "in" action. According to the image of teaching as "technical-rational practice," teaching is perceived as technology, expressed through a set of generic principles of action that can be learnt theoretically and then applied practically, in a skillful way. According to the alternative, "reflective-practice" image, teaching is a personal response to problematic situations characterized by uncertainty, complexity and uniqueness. Teachers negotiate with this reality and frame and define the problems ~3~



they face through a dialectical-reflective and intuitive conversation with and in the situation. This image of the profession has been embraced by practitioners of many occupations other than teaching and has challenged the traditional classical view of the profession. Taking into account the professional development of teachers, this view of teaching often appears after teachers gain more experience rather than among novice teachers. Another set of beliefs that develops over the career span relates to perceptions of the nature of a "good" teacher. In correspondence with the technical-rational image of teaching, a good teacher is considered primarily an educated person, knowledgeable and skilled – an "expert" (Berliner, 2001), or a "professional" (Darling-Hammond, 1990, 1999). In correspondence with the "reflective practice" image of teaching, a "good" teacher is a reflective practitioner – able to improvise and invent, is more creative and an artisan. A distinction between a "successful" and a "good" teacher was suggested by Berliner (2005) and by Fenstermacher and Richardson (2005). They claim that while a successful teacher is judged on whether the teacher has achieved the intended learning outcomes, usually defined as student achievements, a good teacher is judged through reliance on professional standards and norms that often stem from beliefs about the nature of teaching and are dictated by educational ideologies. This approach gives way to many descriptions of a "good" teacher: Lamm (1972, 2002), relying on educational thought from the beginning of the twentieth century, portrayed three major prototypes of the "good" or "ideal" teacher: an agent of a certain culture, well acquainted with its wealth and able to transmit it; an agent of socialization either of an existing social order or an agent of social change; and an agent of the individual who fosters the individual growth. Combs, Blume, Newman and Wass (1974) describe teachers using three other terms: "knowledgeable," "performer," and "charismatic." Wilson and Youngs (2005) refer to "intellectual," "professional," and "value" teachers. In light of humanistic ideology (Maslow, 1968; Rogers, 1969), Korthagen (2004) defines a "good" teacher through his or her personal humanistic virtues and in this spirit, Noddings (1999) regards the virtue of "caring" as the most important asset that characterizes a "good" teacher. Reichel and Arnon (2005), upon reviewing the theory and research dealing with student teachers' perceptions of the characteristics of a "good" teacher, group these perceptions into two categories: "knowledgeable qualities" and "personality qualities." This distinction also appears in a later study (Arnon & Reichel, 2007), where the researchers found that inexperienced student teachers attribute less importance to knowledge and describe a "good" teacher as mostly having certain personality traits, especially being caring, empathetic and attentive. More experienced student teachers have a more balanced view, valuing also subject matter and didactic knowledge. The fact that studentteachers with experience attribute greater importance to knowledge than student-teachers without experience is an indication of another developmental trend in the process of professional socialization. With experience, it becomes clear that personal qualities are not sufficient to make a good teacher (Arnon & Reichel, 2007; Kagan, 1992). It seems that the answer to the question "What are the characteristics of a "good" teacher?" is heavily dependent on the educational ideology of those who are asked, on their prior experience, and on the context. This is why, in many studies as well as the present one, this question serves as a means for determining the hidden educational beliefs of future teachers.

2.3 Research Purpose and Questions In this study we examine second career student teachers' motivation to turn to teaching, their intentions to remain in the teaching profession and their images of teaching and of “good” teachers. The questions this study deals with are: 1. How do second career student teachers enrolled in the MTeach program perceive the importance of various factors when choosing a career in general and to what extent do they ~4~

www.todayscience.org/ier.php International Education Research Vol. 2, Issue 3, 2014 perceive teaching as fulfilling these factors? Do these perceptions change during the preparation period? 2. To what extent do second career student teachers intend to remain in the teaching profession? 3. How do students in the program perceive the nature of teaching and do these perceptions change during the preparation period? 4. How do second career student teachers perceive the characteristics of a "good" teacher?

3. Method 3.1 Participants The study was carried out in one of four Israeli MTeach programs that commenced in the largest teacher college in Israel in the year 2010. The study included all students who were accepted and were enrolled in the program in its two first cycles: 28 in the first cycle and 49 in the second, a total of 77 participants. All of them were Hebrew speakers as their first language holding university degrees in one of the disciplines taught on the secondary school level in Israel. Student's ages ranged from 27 to 59 (with a mean of 35). Among them, 33% were male. Most (60%) had no prior teaching experience while the others had some experience in the framework of informal education. This profile matched the expectations of the initiators of the program. Participation in the study was on a voluntary basis and the students were neither forced nor coerced to fill in any of the questionnaires as can be seen later on in the slight drop of participation towards the end of the program.

3.2 Methodology and Instruments The methodology employed was mainly quantitative, based on data attained from questionnaires, except for the one open question that required qualitative analysis. The analysis used was tailored to data obtained from the different instruments and will be mentioned in relation to each of them. Four questionnaires were administered: 1) A background questionnaire that dealt with students' past experience in education (if any) and with students' intentions to work as teachers and pursue the teaching profession. This questionnaire was administered only at the beginning of the first year of the program. Descriptive statistics were used to portray the background characteristics of the group and their intentions to work. 2) A Likert-type questionnaire that dealt with the importance of various reasons for making a career choice decision and whether the teaching career fulfills these reasons. The questionnaire was an adaptation of the one used by Coulthard and Kyriacou (2002). It contained a set of 21 statements describing different reasons for choosing a career. Students were first asked to what extent they find these reasons to be important in choosing a career (1-not important to 5-very important) and then to evaluate to what extent the teaching career is fulfilling for these reasons (1-not fulfilling 5-very fulfilling). The questionnaire was administered twice – at the beginning and at the end of the program in a pre-post design. Students were required to insert a personal code that would allow us, on the one hand, to pair the two questionnaires and, on the other hand, would retain students' anonymity. The analysis that followed the data obtained from this instrument aimed to answer the following questions: (a) Is there a difference in the way second career student teachers ~5~



perceived the importance of several indices describing reasons for choosing a career in general (Importance) and the extent to which these reasons are fulfilled when choosing teaching as a career (Fulfilled)? (b) To what extent has this difference changed over time (the preparation period)? The statistical procedure used for answering these two questions was a Multivariate Analysis of Variance with repeated measures. 3) A semantic differential instrument (Osgood, Suci, & Tannenbaum, 1957) that measures student responses on scales defined by contrasting adjectives describing two images of teaching on the basis of the two images of practice offered by Schön (1983, 1987). The questionnaire included seven items describing different aspects of teaching on a scale represented by two contrasting poles – the first representing the technical-rational image of teaching (1 on the scale), and the other representing teaching as a reflective practice (8 on the scale). The pairs of statements were: boring–interesting, simple–complex, routine– creative, characterized by fixed rules–characterized by uncertainty, characterized by repeated events–characterized by unique events, based on scientific knowledge–based on common sense, planned and calculated–spontaneous. The questionnaire was administered twice – at the beginning and at the end of the program. Here too, a personal code was used to allow pairing up the questionnaires. Descriptive statistics and paired t-tests for determining statistical differences between the two scores obtained at the two points in time were employed. 4) An open question regarding students' perceptions of the qualities of a "good" teacher. Students' statements were analyzed and sorted into categories which emerged from the data itself. The categorization was carried out separately by the two researchers who conducted the study and inter-reliability was found to be high.

4. Findings Findings will be presented in relation to each of the research questions. Since a similar pattern was found in the two groups of students, results will be presented for all participants together.

4.1 Factors Affecting Career Choice in General and the Extent to Which the Teaching Career Fulfills them Six indices were constructed on the basis of their content. A preliminary factor analysis and internal consistency reliability measures (Cronbach's alpha) from the set of 21 statements describing reasons for choosing a career supported this construction (Questionnaire number 2). During this process 3 items were removed. Following are the descriptions of these indices and their α computed twice at the beginning and end of the preparation program. The indices that represent factors affecting career choice are presented in descending order of their perceived importance in choosing a career in general. •

Intellectual challenge – four statements: the career provides intellectual challenge; provides pleasure and satisfaction; enables intellectual growth, and provides a creative-non routine task (α = .73; α = .83).

•

Pleasant working environment – two statements: the career offers a pleasant human environment; a pleasant physical environment (α = .76; α = .77).

•

Compatible with family life – two statements: the career enables to integrate career with family life; and enables time flexibility and vacations (α = .79; α = .55).

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www.todayscience.org/ier.php International Education Research Vol. 2, Issue 3, 2014 •

Working with youngsters, contributing to society – three statements: the career requires caring for the other; fulfills a social mission, and enables interaction with young people. (α = .68; α = .62)

•

Economic and prestige returns – comprises six statements: the career benefits those who are successful; provides opportunities for promotion; provides a high salary; enables to support a family; provides social acknowledgement and benefits for effort, and guarantees a successful image (α = .80; α = .90).

•

Authority and power – one statement: provides authority and power.

Table 1 presents descriptive statistics (mean, standard deviation and n) for the two variables – "Importance" and "Fulfilled" and F statistics and significance for comparing within-subject contrasts (Importance vs. fulfilled) – F1; differences between the two points of time – F2, and the interactions effect between the within-subject contrasts and time – F3. This last measure answers the question: Whether the differences between "Importance" and "Fulfilled" have changed over time? Table 1. Means (standard deviations) and a MANOVA with repeated measures of pre-post differences between "importance" and fulfillment of factors effecting career choice Time 1 - Pre (n= 61) Import. Fulfill. M M (SD) (SD)

Time 2 - Post (n=58) Import. Fulfill. M M (SD) (SD)

Within-Subject Contrasts F1 Importance vs. Fulfilled 49.7***

F2 Time 1 vs. Time 2 3.0

F3 Interaction

Intellectual challenge

4.33 (.84)

3.49 (.84)

4.07 (.86)

3.38 (.95)

.29

Pleasant work. conditions

4.16 (.77)

2.42 (1.3)

3.97 (1.0)

2.60 (1.35)

65.1***

.00

1.3

Compatible w/ family life

4.03 (1.1)

3.54 (1.1)

3.76 (1.0)

3.64 (.86)

2.87

.03

4.17

Serving society

3.74 (.92)

4.19 (.73)

3.56 (1.0)

4.25 (.77)

19.3***

.63

1.29

Economy & prestige

3.7 (1.3)

1.24 (1.3)

3.22 (1.4)

1.28 (1.3)

100.0***

.88

4.1*

Authority & power

2.49 (1.5)

2.13 (1.3)

2.17 (1.7)

2.89 (1.21)

.71

5.80*

1.17**

* p